If he was still alive, Jean-Jacques would be 300 years old today. He was born in Geneva (which is about 25 km from my home) on the 28th of June 1712.
So we might be neighbours, Jean-Jacques and I.
I’d be honoured to be his neighbour, even though I have nothing against my present neighbours, a gentle couple from Barcelona.
Ah, I realize you might wonder who this Jean-Jacques is…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
the great philosopher and writer of 18th century, whose  300th birthday is celebrated today in Geneva and in  Annecy and Chambery, two small French towns nearby, which were important place in Rousseau’s life.
To celebrated him today many merry “Republican picnics” have been organized here and there.
The house where Rousseau was born, Grand Rue 40, in Geneva, is still there.
Rousseau generally signed all his books as “Jean Jacques Rousseau, Citizen of Geneva”.

His father…guess that, was…a watchmaker (very Swiss, isn’t it?), but notwithstanding his artisan status, was well educated and a lover of music.
"A Genevan watchmaker," Rousseau wrote, "is a man who can be introduced anywhere; a Parisian watchmaker is only fit to talk about
watches."

    
“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.”
~Jean-Jacques Rousseau ~